Meaning of Diaspora in the Context of DiasporaEngager | Diaspora Engagement

In the context of DiasporaEngager, the word Diaspora refers to anyone who, for any reasons, is living in a country or town that is not his or her place of origin or ancestry or the place s/he calls home. Some people may call them an immigrant, a stranger, or an alien. Some may argue that, most individuals can be remotely linked to a country of origin different than their current country of residence, and therefore, most of us are an alien, immigrant, or a Diaspora of somewhere. In the US for instance, except the native Indians, everyone else can be considered an alien or immigrant. Even in that case, the Indians themselves have had to migrate from somewhere before reaching the US.

The longer the duration of the stay of someone in a foreign land, the higher the likelihood that his or her descendants think that they (the descendants) are native of that place that their ancestry moved to long ago. That’s why, because they are not first, second, or thirdgeneration immigrant, many people easily forget that they are a stranger of what they call “our land”, and unfortunately treat the new immigrants like the “bad people” or like “those who are taking our lands or our country”, or like “those who don’t even speak our language well”, or like “those who don’t behave like us”. In reality, those new immigrants (new arrivals) are usually just trying to go through the obligatory survival and integration steps that the ancestors of those who are calling them “strangers” and who think they are native did long ago.

Therefore, without entering into any political and demographic debates, the word “Diaspora” as used in our context can be applied to any human being.